Riserva Naturale di Collemeluccio

In the heart of Alto Molise, a few kilometres from the village of Pescolanciano, in the province of Isernia, lies the Riserva Naturale Orientata e Biogenetica di Collemeluccio (a protected biogenetic nature reserve): 363 hectares of forest established in 1971, today part of the UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserve known as «Collemeluccio-Montedimezzo». The UNESCO recognition, part of the intergovernmental «Man and the Biosphere» programme launched that same year, certifies a balance between biodiversity conservation and human presence that in this stretch of the southern Apennines has roots as old as the tratturi, the ancient transhumance drove roads.

The reserve is managed by the Reparto Carabinieri Biodiversità (the Carabinieri's biodiversity protection unit) of Isernia and safeguards one of the most extensive black pine forests — Pinus nigra — in southern Italy. The species, introduced in the past for reforestation purposes, has found in this territory the conditions to develop into compact, silent stands, where light filters obliquely between the dark trunks and the undergrowth remains clear and walkable. Alongside the black pine, native species of the central Apennines thrive, and wildlife — roe deer, wild boar, birds of prey — frequents these woods with a continuity that low human pressure has preserved over time.

The internal trails can be walked or ridden by mountain bike, with no invasive infrastructure. The terrain alternates flat stretches with moderate climbs, and orientation within the forest follows a network of paths that cross the pine forest without ever leaving the shade for long stretches. There are no built attractions here: the landscape is the forest itself, with its density, its silence, and air that carries the scent of resin in the warmer hours. The reserve is part of a wider system that includes the twin core area of Montedimezzo, also within the Isernia area, and together the two sites form a significant ecological corridor for the entire Molise stretch of the Apennine ridge.

Collemeluccio belongs to that inland stretch of Molise that does not appear on organised tourism circuits and which, precisely for this reason, retains a territorial substance hard to find elsewhere in central-southern Italy. The nearby villages — Pescolanciano with its Aragonese castle, Pietrabbondante with its Italic sanctuary — complete a setting where nature and historical stratification stand side by side without overlapping. Those who walk these trails find no redundant signage or elaborate visitor facilities: they find the forest, in its exact measure.